Mara's Point of View

Being a soldier isn't what someone would necessary call 'fun'. Being woken up at the crack of dawn every morning, running miles in the rain, and studying nonstop is not the definition of fun for the majority of cadets. And it definitely was not a walk in the park.

"Mara." A sing-song voice came through my ears. Luring me back to sleep. "Maraaaa." A soft tap was applied on her shoulder but again I didn't budge, and merely ignored it.

"Sasha she isn't going to wake up that way." A gruff voice announced and I crinkled my nose in response. "This is how you do it... Oi! MARA! GET THE FUCK UP!" I felt a sharp pain as Ymir yanked my ear and dragged me out of bed. Tumbling to the floor I pulled my blanket with me in an attempt to stay warm. I wrapped  myself up like a burrito even though I was on the grimy wooden floors. "Get off your ass Mara!" Ymir kicked my side lightly before walking away to begin getting dressed for the day.

"I'm up! I'm up!" I struggled to get out of my scratchy blanket and eventually managed to escape. When I looked up, I saw Sasha skipping around and gave me a small wave as she headed out. Scratching my head I pulled off the bed long shirt, leaving me just in my  undergarments.

Grabbing my uniform I began to change whilst the rest of the girls—except Sasha—also began to change. They didn't let me sleep in this time which was thankful, since I  had to run for six hours once for being late. Jean of course got a laugh out of that...but it's okay because Shadis put him on clean-up duty of the week.

What I didn't expect was the door flying open, with the one and only Eren Yeager being the culprit. "CAN ANY OF YOU TEACH ME TO BALANCE ON THE 3D MANEUVERING GEAR!!" He shouted in not expecting to be met with a bunch of half naked girls. Some of the girls shrieked, throwing a pillow or something or covering intimate places. As soon as Eren processed what he was seeing, his face began to flush as everyone began to shout at him to leave.

I on the other hand pulled on my white tank-top—still wasn't wearing any pants—and walked over to Eren's stunned figure. Without warning, I slammed the door in his face earning a pained groan. "Oi, you shit-head learn to knock!!" I shouted after him through the door, knocking on the door slightly.

"Hey, it could have been worse, at least all of us had undergarments on." Ymir said trying to ease the tension while she pulled on her pants. Annie's cold blue eyes glared daggers at the door while she exited. Mikasa huffed and rushed to find her step-brother before Annie had the chance to beat him up. The last thing I saw as she walked out was her red scarf fluttering behind her.

...

"Hey Mara, about this morning. I'm sorry." Eren quickly apologized while  we were  in hand-to-hand combat training.

"Judging how I'm the tenth girl you apologized to, Mikasa must have put you up to this..." I ran a hand through her short hair, and sighed lightly. You see, I noticed the boy making his rounds and apologising.

"Ya she did...and I also feel pretty bad... But anyway-" He was cut off by me placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Eren, before you ask, that whole contraption is a balancing act. You seriously just have to evenly distribute your weight. There isn't any other way to describe it."

His face was stoic and then it transformed into frustration as this was the sixth time he had heard that answer. But either way, he wanted to confirm what I was explaining, "Ooh! I got it. So it's like when you have a barrel on it's side and you place a wood plank on top. You have to evenly distribute your weight so you don't tumble off." Eren attempted to explain, I confirmed his analysis with a small nod. His expression went from angry serial killer, to his logical 'hm this might just work, let me ask Armin' face. "Thanks Mara. Again sorry about this morning!" He rushed off to go find Armin.

This left me to let out another sigh. But just as I was about to walk over to Ymir and Christa, a hand clamped down on my shoulder. "I don't know what you just told him, but he seems excited." The familar voice rang in my ears as my eyes narrowed.

"Jean." I looked over my right shoulder, and picked up his tan hand from my shoulder. I dropped it whilst trying to force a smile.

"Wow, you genuinely seem happy to see me." He said sarcastically seeing my forced smile. His eyes scanned my face.

"What do you want?" I dropped my façade and asked bluntly.

"Well, I feel we got off on the wrong foot and I wan-" Jean was interrupted by me shushing him, "That's the second apology I've gotten today. It's cool. Don't worry about it, I don't hold grudges that long." I explained in a bored manner.

"Oh, well, okay then." He smiled thinking they might have a conversation, but that thought was quickly squashed when I quickly turned away and sped off towards Ymir and Christa.

"Wait!" Jean attempted to call after me but stopped knowing it'd be fruitless, "Oh never mind." He began kicking the dirt, as Connie walked up to him.

"Dude, what's the matter with you?" Connie questioned eyeing his friends and he dug a hole in the ground with his boot.

"People suck!" Jean growled and stormed off to resume training.

"Oh, okay then." Connie raised his eyebrow at his friend's not-so-weird behavior.

...

Everyone gathered around to receive a harness and one by one everyone was lifted to be tested to see if they could balance. Eren was triumphant. Well for three seconds at least. Over the next three days, he continued to practice with the 3DMG only to realize that it was impossible. However, on the last day he was allowed, Shadis had requested to see his his 3DMG. It turned out that his gear was faulty, and after getting a new set, he passed with flying colors.

After he went it was my turn, it definitely wasn't anything special.

I attached myself to the harness and felt the wind gently blow through my short hair and my feet slowly lifted off the ground until I was a good five feet of the ground. I hung loosely, then Shadis waved for me to be lowered.

As everyone was heading back to the barracks, Jean reached and ruffled my straight blonde hair. What he didn't realize was that I was nearly as tall as him. A measly inch separated us from being the exact height. He also didn't anticipate me to stop abruptly right in front of him, causing him to run full speed into my back. With a triumphant smirk I shoved my hands in my pocket and continued with everyone else.

"Watch it!" He growled in my ear shoving past me, he pushed me behind him and stormed off.

"What's his problem?" Marco came up next to me while I was currently laughing my head off.

"Oh nothing. He just has his panties in a twist because I stopped in front of him and threw him off his game. That's all, don't worry about it." I waved off his question and chuckled to myself.

...

Hand-to-hand combat, while most don't take it seriously, it is the best training session of the day. I don't have to push myself as far as I thought.

"Alright Armin, you're going to be the thug or street vandal—sorry I forgot what they told us this time around—and I'll retrieve the knife from you. Then we can trade, alright?" I explained to the blonde handing him the wooden knife.

"Mara, this is how we do it every time." He muttered getting into a defensive position with the knife in hand.

"Oh right." Without a second thought I swung my leg under Armins knocking him down, twisting my two legs around his waist I was able to immobilize him. He was on the ground face in the mud, my legs wrapped tightly around his waist, he struggled to move and I twisted his right arm back and grabbed the knife from his possession. "Thanks Armin."

I released his arm and got off of his back, tossing the knife to my left hand, I helped Armin up with my right.

He began brushing the dirt off of himself, "You know you don't have to go easy on me, right?"

"Armin, I go easy on everyone. Not just you, you're stronger than you know so stop doubting yourself." I ruffled his hair giving him a lopsided grin.

"You weren't holding back, barely looks like you can fight." Jean taunted, crossing his arms. My eyes slowly made their way over to him, giving him a half-hearted glare.

"Very much so Asshole, because I don't want hurt anyone this is just training. This isn't a life or death situation." I didn't even bother sparing him a second glance. "But by the look of it, you don't even know how to fight, let alone hold back. If you ever want to be a soldier, learn to fight. But then again you don't want to be soldier you want to be apart of the Military Police. So by all means waste your time, shit-face."

I noticed Eren about to intervene by storming towards us, but I threw my hand out to block him. However, the rage filled boy still spoke, "From the first day we began training you were picking fights Jean, lets see if you can finish him." Giving him a nasty grin, Eren crossed his arms and leaned back with Riener and Bertold.

All the talking ceased and I glanced around my light green eyes darting back and forth. All eyes were pinned on us. Jean, the cocky-bastard, sauntered over to me. Before the wimp could back out, I brought my left and right hand up in a blocking position giving him the first move, I held the wooden knife in my left hand. My left leg was behind my right as I bent my knees, prepared.

He threw a weak punch at me trying to put on a show for the other cadets. I swiftly grabbed the arm, kicked his feet out from under him and flipped him over. While he scrambled to move, I twisted my legs underneath his stomach, and hoisted his back on top of me. Putting his neck into a choke-hold, I held the wooden knife inches from his temple.

Craning my neck, I whispered in his ear, "Now that, Asshat, was me holding back." I released him and heard him gasp for breath, while coughing he made his way over to Marco muttering some incoherent nonsense under his breath. The crowd scattered as Shadis began yelling about getting back to work.

I turned my back and hooked arms with Armin, "Alright my blonde friends, ready to train a bit more?"

"Um, honestly? No."

Four Years Later—Third Person's View

Sargent Shadis, strangest man cadets will ever meet. Even his secrets have secrets. He leaned against a tree in the training grounds forest, his hawk like eyes watching as cadets flew through the sky towards the slow moving wooded targets.

He watched the top ten recruits go by, while calculating their scores and analyzing their every move. A flash was seen darting through trees and chopped clean through two targets before anyone else saw her coming.

"Mara Cross. Strong and swift she excels in all physical attributes of her training. Her skill and swiftness might rival Mikasa's. Her classwork is well thought out but she tends to lack effort by not turning in assignments frequently. Her teamwork is strong, she floats around and helps out where it is necessary. Hand-to-hand combat is her best subject by far. But she lacks in general motivation."